Cloth expanding apparatus



Oct. 3, 1933. w, J. KOCH CLOTH EXPANDING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 24, 1931 INVENTOR, Wzzziwn r hooh,

BY HIS ATTOR llllll Patented Oct 3, 1933.

UNITED STATES -CLOTH EXPANDING APPARATUS 7 William J. Koch, Midland Park, N. J., assignor to Van Vlaanderen Machine Company, Paterson, J., a corporation of New Jersey Application September 24, a 1931 Serial No. 564,833

1 Claim.

In the art of altering the width of cloth, as by stretching it transversely, it is known to pass the cloth in partial peripheral contact with a revoluble roller whose periphery at one end, at least,

5 but usually each end, is composed of a circumferential series of sections individually and longitudinally movable and by cam means'or otherwise cause each member of the series upon contact thereof with the cloth to move lengthwise in one longitudinal direction and upon departing from the cloth to move back. And in order to maintain the cloth transversely altered in width for a more or less extent of the cycle of the roller it is also known to mount the roller in a lever whose axis is substantially parallel with that of the roller, whereby the roller may be shifted against the cloth to form more or less of a bend in the cloth around and produce I more or less peripheral contact of the cloth with the roller, with the consequence that each of said sections may be active on the cloth for a more or less portion of the cycle of rotation of the roller.

According to this invention I use two rollers and mount them in a lever structure whose fulcrum is between them and pass the cloth between the rollers, with the result that not only is the effort to alter the width of the cloth duplicated but each roller acts in any position of the system (comprising said lever structure and rollers) where both rollers engage the cloth to hold the latter effectively in contact with the other roller and it is also possible, by simply rotating the system comprising the lever structure and rollers and without interfering with the existing structure or operation of machines or other equipment from one to the other of which the cloth is travelling, to vary the arcuate extent through which in each revolution each roller 40 will be active on the cloth from the very minimum to a very considerable portion of its whole circumference.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an apparatus embodying my invention, the rollers appearing only in a general way;

Fig. 2 is a plan thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a plan, partly in section, of one of the rollers, showing the details thereof.

Any so-called expanding roller may be used, those shown and designated generally by the character a being substantially the same as the roller set forth in the Peterson Patent No.

'1 1,799,603, to wit: An axial carrier is formed by the shaft 1 and sinuously grooved cams such as 2 fixed thereon. Revoluble on the carrier is a structure comprising a cage composed of longitudinal bars 3 and heads 4 in which the bars are fixed and which have bearings at 5; mid-slats 6 fixed to the intermediate head or heads; and end slats or sections '7 which have projections 7a which engage the bars and thus guide these sections lengthwise thereof and which also engage the camways of the cams 2. When the revoluble structure rotates any two alined end slats or sections are reciprocated by their cams once for each revolution of said structure.

In a support 8 are revoluble alined shafts 9 whose axis is here horizontal, because the cloth is usually made to travel lengthwise with its transverse dimension horizontal. These shafts have aflixed thereto two cross-heads 10, each shaft being midway between the ends of the corresponding cross-head. and the cross-heads being arranged in the same plane. In each pair of corresponding ends of the cross-heads is mounted one of the rollers such as that described, to wit; the carrier of such roller is fixed in said ends, the revoluble structure thereof remaining revoluble on said carrier. Thus the shafts 9 and cross-heads form a lever structure in which, at both sides of its fulcrum, the rollers are mounted.

Said lever structure may be' adjusted rotatively in either direction by providing its shaft 9 with a worm-wheel 1 1 which meshes with a worm l2 journaled in the support 8 with its axis preferably vertical and having at its upper end a hand-wheel 13.

When the hand-wheel is turned one way or the other the fulcrumed system comprising the lever structureand rollers a will be rotatively shifted accordingly. Assume the travelling cloth I) to be held stretched, as by the guides formed by rollers 14 and 15, and the fabric to pass between the rollers thereof as shown in Fig. 1, upon rotatively shifting said system both rollers engage the cloth, so that a. double effort to expand or contract transversely results; each roller acts to maintain the cloth in effective contact with the other; and, without interfering with the existing structure or operation of machines or other equipment from one to the other of which the cloth is travelling and between which my apparatus is located, it is possible to vary the arcuate extent through which in each revolution each roller will be active on the cloth, that is, from the very minimum, or when the rollers bear against the cloth without appreciably bending it, to where they have at least reversed their positions and a pronounced S-bend is formed in the cloth. Of

course, to the end that each roller may have the wide range of activity thus indicated the cams should be fashioned and rotatively positioned so as to hold the slats apart or together (according as it is expanding or narrowing that is being effected) for the widest possible range of arcuate contact of the cloth with such roller. 4

By using worm-and-worm-wheel gearing the worm itself acts to hold the lever structure in any position to which it is rotatively adjusted. u

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

In combination, a pair of rollersfor altering the width of lengthwise travelling cloth and each comprising a rotary structure having a substantially cylindrical periphery and an axial carrier on which said structure is revoluble; each struc- 1,92s,s17 j Y ture having one end thereof composed of a cirtially parallel relation to each other and having its fulcrum between the rollers, one of said first named-means being arranged to move sections of the corresponding structure respectively outward or inward when the other such means moves sections at the relatively diametrically opposite side of the other structure outward or inward.

WILLIAM J. KOCH. 

